Democrats are stonewalling top-level appointees — but the president indicated Tuesday that hundreds of vacancies might just go unfilled. 

The president cast the decision as part of an effort to shrink the government. On a similar track, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson a day earlier told Congress that most of his agency’s special envoy positions — including dozens from the Obama administration — will be eliminated and their responsibilities reassigned. 

Among the positions on the chopping block are envoys dedicated to climate change and the Iran nuclear deal.

“Today, nearly 70 such positions exist within the State Department, even after many of the underlying policy challenges these positions were created to address have been resolved,” Tillerson wrote in a letter to Congress.